Her book in progress, Poetic Operations, uses practice-based research to develop strategies for using media to reduce violence against trans women of color. cárdenas’s co-authored books The Transreal: Political Aesthetics of Crossing Realities (2012) and Trans Desire / Affective Cyborgs (2010) were published by Atropos Press. She is the winner of the 2016 Creative Award from the Gender Justice League. cárdenas was the recipient of the inaugural James Tiptree Jr. fellowshipin 2014, a fellowship to provide support and recognition for the new voices in science fiction who are making visible the forces that are changing our view of gender today. She has been described as one of “7 bio-artists who are transforming the fabric of life itself” by io9.com. She is a first generation Colombian American.

cárdenas completed her Ph.D. in Media Arts + Practice in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. She is a member of the artist collective Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0. Her solo and collaborative artworks have been presented in museums, galleries and biennials including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the ZKM in Karlrushe, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, the Centro Cultural del Bosque in Mexico City, the Centro Cultural de Tijuana, the Zero1 Biennial and the California Biennial. cárdenas was the recipient of the first ever James Tiptree Jr. fellowship.

Research Assistant – Robin Cruz

Robin Cruz is an undergraduate student and digital media artist in Interactive Media Design at the University of Washington Bothell. Her research interests include game design, computer art, and social/political engagement. She is passionate about crafting virtual spaces that motivate mindfulness and learning through artistic and playful experiences, as well as collaborating with fellow students across diverse disciplines. She is also currently with the Digital Future Lab as Audio Lead, creating audioscapes for non-violent game mechanics as leader of a team of student interns. Robin enjoys creating in a variety of fields including sound design, user experience, and performance art, as well as exploring topics of artistic expression relating to compassion and equity.

Former Members

Research Assistant – Nejat Kedir

Nejat Kedir is a second year Cultural Studies Student at the University of Washington Bothell. Her research interests are black feminism, black studies, critical Muslim studies, black Marxism, critical humanism, animal studies and queer studies. She loves teaching and working with students both within the university and outside of the university. She also loves being, thinking, and studying with a community of people who believe in the possibility of another world. Another world is possible!

Research Assistant – Frances Lee

Frances Lee is a Masters of Arts in Cultural Studies student at the University of Washington Bothell. They are a native Texan with a complicated relationship to the sun, and are currently based in Seattle. Frances straddles several disciplines, including technology, community activism, and art. They have worked in the Austin/Seattle corporate tech industry and are a trained UI/UX Designer. They are currently collaborating with an all-trans work group to create the 2017 King County Trans Resource and Referral Guide, which provides a safety net for trans people and their loved ones in this region.

Frances’ research centers women of color feminism, trans of color identities, tech education, and community intellectualism. Frances completed their BA in Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Research Assistant – Josefina Garcia-Turner

Josefina Garcia-Turner hails from the Central Valley of California and is a graduate of the University of Washington Bothell’s Master of Arts in Cultural Studies. Her research focuses on radical trans and gender non-conforming resistance to prisons and structural violence. Her current project is a hypertext based speculative fiction that imagines Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera’s Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) as a prison break and heist group.

Research Assistant – Kate Sohng

Kate Sohng is an undergraduate student in Interactive Media Design at the University of Washington Bothell. She is most interested in learning web programming and Processing code as tools that effectively deliver messages of social justice. She studies how to interact with people through code and design to evoke emotions that may lead people toward considerations of social justice issues.

Wearable Designer – Waner Deng

Waner Deng (Emma) is an undergraduate student of Interactive Media Design and Marketing in University of Washington. She is interested in project management and user interface design. She has passion to have expansive knowledge of method and process involved in creating and designing technology based applications for the current and coming generations. She is looking forward to experience the diverse interdisciplinary approaches to interactive media design from POCLab by solving complex and real world challenges as well as developing practical solutions for social justice issue.